Thursday, March 27, 2014

If it's true that a room's decor should tell a story about the person who
lives there, what do the rooms you've decorated say to the world?
Would anyone know who you are?
You know from the bold patterns and colors in the picture shown here that the
occupant is no shrinking violet.
Meredith German, the resident, was born in the South and makes her living as
a New York fashion designer. That's the story she asked Charlotte interior
designer Barrie Benson to help her tell in her roughly 850-square-foot Upper
West Side apartment.

The chairs are done in chintz – with black patent leather trim. This modern
use for a fabric that many consider frumpy earned Benson a spot in Southern Living's April magazine.
"We call it 'a little granny meets punk,'" Benson said of the project.
A second Charlotte designer, Ruthie Sommers, also offers the magazine ideas for
decorating with the shiny printed fabric. "It's coming back," Benson says
confidently.
Benson's client wanted the Fazenda
Lily pattern because she often admired it while growing up as a neighbor to The
Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
More recently, German was a lead designer for fashion icon Marc Jacobs,
Benson said. Visually representing both aspects of her life resulted in a room
that's daring with a soft side.
"I think it's really neat that a female designer in New York still wants to
bring a little of her Southern past into the house," Benson said.
"It's a neat story," Benson said.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Now there's a nearly free online marketplace to fix all the shopping days gone wrong
and clear out the gifts that are yet to be regifted.
The website and Apple app for "sharing" lightly used goods is called yerdle (yes, lowercase). Sign up for an account, and you
can have what others no longer want for a $2 to $4 flat-rate shipping fee.
The founders – a former Wal-mart exec
and a former Sierra Club president – think this is a way we all can save money
and cut waste. Why buy something new when you can dust off a similar version?The butterfly tea set shown here, for example, was
available on yerdle for 65 credits and $3 shipping. I got 250 points just for opening the account. The cheerful mortar and pestle, below, was available for 50 credits and $3 shipping.

Changing our ideas about shopping would be good for the planet and our
consumerism problem, yerdle's
handlers say.
Does this arrangement really get us a pass?
We've all got donation centers just a detour away. I just dropped off a trunkload of books at one. Eventually I'll probably
stop to unload a box of tag sale dishes that my mom couldn't pass on years
ago.
OK, the founders might be kind of right about the unchecked shopping. Mom
convinced herself that I'd squeak at the sight of the circa-1950 pink floral
imprints on those four-piece place settings.
And maybe somebody on yerdle would
still want to set the table as Grammy did. If so, I could earn more points to
use for shopping – uh, “sharing” – on yerdle.
But I keep wondering how far that box would have to travel to reach a “green”
home?

Thursday, March 13, 2014

You date yourself by admitting you were an adult by the time you sent your
first text message.
Now, it seems coming home to a dark house, a chilly living room and cold
stove will soon make you a cultural relic.
Generation automation is here.
Researchers predict that 50 million buildings globally – the majority of them
residential – will be equipped for automation by 2018, according to a report
from On World, a technology research firm.
“In the past three to four years, we’ve seen a huge change in the number
smart homes,” said Mareca Hatler, On World’s research director. “It used to be
pretty much a luxury market.”
With costs dropping, consumers are buying automation to control energy use,
lighting, security and entertainment systems, On World says in its “Smart
Building Set” forecast.
Annual shipments of wireless gadgets are expected to increase by more than
600 percent over the next five years, the report predicts.
Getting home late tonight? Adjust the thermostat to save a few dollars.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will still be popular for in-home networks. ZigBee,
Z-Wave and EnOcean are also names to watch for entertainment, fitness, medical
and monitoring tools.
When the doorbell rings, live video on your smartphone lets you see who is
outside. Tap the screen to unlock the door. Yes, your keys are headed to the
time capsule, too.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

There are lots of garden tours in our area every year, but this one is
different.
You take a drive along country roads in York County, S.C. Before long you're
sitting in front of lavender fields, Italian cypress trees and a handsome
Mediterranean-style home. It's a bit surreal.
Owner Chris Pinard, a landscape designer who was born in southern France, has
planted more than 3,000 plants, including 22 types of lavender, 22 varieties of
rosemary and around 50 different salvias.
You can sign up now for a tour of La Bastide des Lavandes, or the lavender
homestead, for $25 at www.sclavender.com.
Pinard is booking 20 tours between May 31 and July 26, after which he plans
to harvest the lavender.
If you've struggled with growing lavender and other Mediterranean herbs, you
can learn from Pinard's technique for establishing these popular plants in our
climate.
He plants lavender in winter in mounded rows of clay soil – with no special
amendments. So there's hope that other Piedmont gardeners can have success with
these plants, too.
In Charlotte, see more local residential gardens during “Art in the Garden,”
presented April 26 and 27 by Charlotte Garden Club, www.charlottegardenclub.org.

Karen Sullivan

About this blog

Karen Sullivan is a writer and editor for The Charlotte Observer's SmarterLiving section. In print and online, SmarterLiving looks at new products, the latest technology and "green" trends for your home. Join us here on Homelife to learn more about people (and places) who inspire us to make life at home better.